Oh myyyyyyyy… more from George Takei

George Takei, who played Sulu in the original “Star Trek” franchise, will be at the Denver Comic Con this weekend at the Colorado Convention Center. (Suhaimi Abdullah, Getty Images)

In case you missed it: I had an opportunity to chat with “Star Trek” star George Takei, who’s coming to the Denver Comic Con this weekend. He talked about his rise in the world of social media, his upcoming Broadway play “Allegiance” and “Star Trek.”

While we covered a fairly wide range of subjects, this was a snippet of our conversation. We ended up talking on the phone for 90 minutes about everything. Here’s a few quotes that didn’t make it into the final piece:

On homophobia:

When we (Japanese-Americans) were put in internment camps, at least we were visually different. It was easier to be prejudice. In the case of homophobia, we are literally members of the family, we’re sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, in some cases, fathers and mothers. Why people deny equality that they enjoy the rights to their own kin, it’s crazy. So many kids get kicked out of their homes by their parents when they discover their child is gay. It’s absolutely insane and irrational.

On John Cho being the new Lt. Hikaru Sulu in “Star Trek”:

I’m very pleased. I was confident of John Cho because I’m chairman of the board of governors of the East-West Players and he first performed about 10 years before he got cast in “Star Trek” for East-West Players and I said, “That kid’s talented. He’s going to go places.” … John Cho got my endorsement before he got cast.

On his breakfast with J.J. Abrams:

When JJ Abrams was casting Star Trek … there was talk of people from the original cast doing cameos in it and one morning I got a call from his office asking if I would have breakfast with JJ. I thought, maybe I was going to have a cameo in that. I heard that Leonard Nimoy was going to be doing a cameo. I thought, “that’s interesting.”

So I had breakfast with JJ and we had a nice friendly chat and he told me he was having some challenges in casting Sulu. He said because I’m Japanese-American, he wanted to cast a Japanese-American actor as Sulu. He’s found someone who’s not Japanese-American and wanted to know how I thought of that. I asked him, “Is he Asian-American?” He said, “Yes.” I said, “That’s all that matters.”

On his lunch with John Cho:

“When he first got cast and before he started filming, I got another phone inviting me to lunch this time from John. I could have made a living, or at least been fed well, with breakfast with JJ, lunch with John.

He was apprehensive about not only the challenge of doing “Star Trek,” but what the fandom of Star Trek was like. He knew at this time about the Star Trek conventions and so I met with him for lunch and he shared his apprehension with me. I told him, “John you have nothing to worry about. You’re a talented guy and you’re going to do a terrific job. You’re going to love the fans because they’re going to love you.” I told him, “rest assured, it won’t be too long before I will be known as the old guy who used to play John Cho’s part.”

Takei will be appearing Saturday and Sunday during the Denver Comic Con at the Colorado Convention Center.